


Episode 2.4: Kraven the Hunter

by Starbooks13



Series: Spiders Have To Stick Together [30]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: (at least I hope that's what I'm doing), Blending Universes, Canon Compliant, Character Development, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Phil is a Good Friend, Season 3 Is Going To Screw Everything Up, Spiders Have To Stick Together, Therapist!Coulson, Women Being Awesome, sort of not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-07
Updated: 2014-09-07
Packaged: 2018-02-16 10:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2266359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starbooks13/pseuds/Starbooks13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Coulson continues to act as Natasha's (healthy, conventional) therapist and Natasha lets herself be compromised around a friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Episode 2.4: Kraven the Hunter

                Coulson paused the recording of the encounter between White Tiger, Spider-Man, and Kraven the Hunter after Ava put away her claws.  He glanced up at Natasha, who was perched next to him on his desk watching the recording.  “Does that ease your mind a little regarding what we talked about the other day?”

                She nodded.  “Yes.  It’s one thing to read the story in Parker’s file but another to hear it straight from his mouth.”  She sighed and looked at him.  “And deep down, I know this is who he is.  That he’s strong enough to emerge untainted by the darker side of what we do.  What happened with Osborn just…”she trailed off.

                “It scared you.” Her body language shut down instantly, her expression turning blank, making it impossible to read her.  The Black Widow never felt comfortable acknowledging fear.  “The very person we’d been trying to protect him from was under our noses the entire time, in a position to do even greater harm than we’d thought.”

                “I was so focused on the obvious threats that I didn’t see the real danger close to home,” she said, eyes closing, the only concession to her discomfort.  “After everything with Loki, with Doom...and I wasn’t there for him when he needed me most.”

                “He did fine on his own, Natasha.  Heck, he did amazingly well.  Spectacularly well, even.”  He stood and put a hand on her shoulder.  “Sometimes I think you worry about him too much.  And I know I’m not the only one.”

                “And I know I’m guilty of it.” She opened her eyes and shook her head.  “Sometimes I’m not even sure why I fixate on his well-being so much.  He has so many other people looking out for him.  You, Fury, his team, his Aunt May…”

                He smiled and let his hand fall. “You’ve always had trouble trusting other people to protect those you care about.” 

                That got a chuckle out of her.  “Good point.”

                “I’m just glad that category has expanded the past few years.”  It used to be just Barton and him—and Fury, in a way.  Now it included the Avengers, their circle of confidantes, and, of course, one Peter Parker.  And those were just the names Coulson knew about.  Natasha had done a good job keeping her protectiveness towards Parker off the radar before he joined SHIELD.  The list could be longer than even he thought.

                “It’s not exactly good for me.  My enemy category keeps getting bigger as well.”

                “But they only see the Widow.  It’s Natasha who cares.”

                That got him a real smile—tiny, tentative, but utterly genuine.  “Have I mentioned that I’m not angry with you anymore?”

                “Not yet, but I had a feeling.”  He sat down at his desk.  “Now don’t take too much longer on the director.  I think he’s starting to reconsider letting Barton recruit you.”

                The smile disappeared.  “I’m not quite there with him yet.”

                “Do what you have to, Agent Romanoff.  That’s an order.”

                She gave him a mock salute before sauntering out of his office.  There were kids still in the building after school, but Coulson didn’t care if they saw her.  He’d gotten used to the gossip, and the one person whose opinion he actually cared about in this case knew he had eyes only for her.

                Speaking of which, he needed to head home so he’d be ready in time.  He and May had been planning this date night for weeks, and there was no way he was going to be late.  Again.

**Author's Note:**

> So coming up with an tag for this episode was hard until I realized that Peter's speech to Ava convincing her not to kill Kraven perfectly addressed a lot of concerns Natasha voiced to Coulson about Peter being tainted in my previous fic in this series. So I figured if Coulson could show that speech to Nat, it might help her feel less angsty. Then Coulson's relationship with Aunt May snuck in at the end, and I figured it was a good way to make up for having given you guys two "Angsty Nat talking to Therapist Coulson" fics in a row. ;) Hope you enjoyed!


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